NEWSLETTER – November 2020
Welcome to our latest newsletter which aims to keep you all in touch with the Cotswold Art Club as
we continue through this exceptional year. As we manage our way through our second lockdown
you will all appreciate that planning any return to normal Club activities remains very difficult. Still
we have done our best to provide some updates below and to share information of interest.
Next Saturday Talks
It is now nine months since we have been able to meet and we should by now have been well into our
2020/2021 series of talks. Our current intention remains to resume our monthly meetings in January 2021.
However, you will all appreciate that this is becoming increasingly unlikely as we wait to see if Lockdown 2
ends as planned and what on-going restrictions will follow. We will be reviewing the situation in early
December and will provide a further update then. The forward programme of talks currently remains as shown
below:
16th January Liz Robertson
Liz is an exhibiting Textile Artist and Teacher based in Gloucester, UK. She teaches textile art and craft courses,
such as sewing, dressmaking, feltmaking and silk painting, to name a few and will talk about and demonstrate a
piece of her distinctive artwork.
20th February Caroline Green
Caroline will demonstrate pastel and pen animal painting.
20th March Catherine Beale
Catherine is based in Bath and specialises in contemporary watercolours and has become absorbed in
experimenting and exploiting pigment behaviours using a method she has termed “gravity painting”. Catherine
will demonstrate an ‘Expressive Seascape’.
Exhibitions
Hopefully many of you will have been able to find extra time for your art while we have been restricted from
doing other things. This should result in lots of excellent material for our next exhibition! We currently have
Lower Slaughter Village Hall booked for a two week exhibition from 26th May to 8th June 2021. Something to
look forward to. It is a shame that the Bath Road market is no longer available to us and quite sad to see it now
sat empty.
Annual General Meeting
As most of you will be aware we normally hold our AGM in December. That will not be possible this year and
we have given some thought to how best to deal with the requirement for an AGM. We don’t want to delay it
and have the uncertainty about when it could be held, we also don’t want to cut into our Saturday talks
programme once they restart. We have therefore decided to carry out the AGM business at an extraordinary
meeting of the Club Committee. This will be held on December 8th either face to face if rules allow or on-line if
necessary. Ahead of the Committee meeting all Club members will be provided with an agenda and an annual
report, including a financial summary. Members can then identify any issues they would like the Committee to
consider and any questions on the annual report or accounts. This should give us a pragmatic way of
continuing Club business without undue disruption.
Get Creative for Christmas
Thank you to everyone who got involved in our recent Art Competition. As ever the number and
quality of the entries was a testament to the collective talent of our members. As we approach
what could be one of the strangest Christmas’s ever we thought you might like to focus your
talents on creating a Christmas card design. This is just for fun, so no prizes involved, but we will
choose some entries to share via our web and social media sites. If you would like to join in send a
digital copy of your work to lynda.merrett@talk21.com with your name and Christmas Card in the
subject box. All entries will be added to an album on our Cotswold Art Club Members Facebook
Group. Please note that by sending us your design you are giving us permission to use your image
for our social media and Club communications – with appropriate credit given of course. You can
also post your entry on to our Cotswold Art Club Members Facebook Group, but please state in
your post that it is a Christmas Card design and include your name. Cut off to receive your design is
18th December.
Facebook Group
Just a reminder about our Facebook Group. It is a private group and only members of our Club can
join. It allows any member who joins the group to post and share ideas, pictures, etc. If you are on
Facebook you just need to visit the Cotswold Art Club page and then click on Groups. You should
then see a group called Cotswold Art Club Members and need to click ‘join’. You will then be asked
to confirm your full name (so we can check club membership) and click to say you agree to the
group rules. Once approved you will be able to see the group, post and comment. The group
currently has 34 members and is a great way to share information and experiences.
Subscriptions
Due to the circumstances this year all existing Club memberships will be extended to December
2021. So good news – no further subscription to pay.
Online Exhibitions
As we are now back to not being able to visit art exhibitions the following may be of interest.
Jon Minshull at ‘Heart of the Tribe’ in Glastonbury has put an exhibition on-line. Thanks to Lynn Mumford for
this suggestion. It is very well put together and easy to navigate with quite a varied selection of work. You can
find it at: https://heart of the tribe.com
The Royal Academy website has lots of interesting material including a number of virtual tours. These include
‘Gaugin and the Impressionists’ and the ‘2020 Summer Exhibition’. Well worth a visit at:
www.royalacademy.org.uk
I hope this newsletter has been useful and we will be in touch again once the future arrangements become
clearer. Please look after yourselves and best wishes from all the Committee.